Federal Judge Puts Indefinite Hold on Biden’s Plans to Halt Deportations

A federal judge in South Texas indefinitely extended his order stopping the Biden Administration’s plans to halt all deportations for 100 days. The new order effectively blocks President Joe Biden from his promise to temporarily stop deporting criminal migrants.

U.S. District Court Judge Drew Tipton placed an indefinite ban on the enforcement of President Biden’s memorandum ordering the cessation of all deportations for 100 days, Fox News reported. Tipton, a judge in the Southern District of Texas, issued a two-week restraining order after the Texas Attorney General’s Office filed a lawsuit in January claiming Biden’s order was unconstitutional.

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton claimed the memorandum signed by President Biden violated an agreement between Texas and the Department of Homeland Security requiring consultation before such a move can be put into action. Paxton also said Biden’s executive order violates federal law.

“The Court’s decision to stop the Biden administration from casting aside congressionally enacted immigration laws is a much-needed remedy for DHS’s unlawful action,” Paxton said in a January statement. “A near-complete suspension of deportations would only serve to endanger Texans and undermine federal law.”

Fox News reported:

The agreement means that DHS must give Texas 180 days’ notice of any proposed change on any matter that would reduce enforcement or increase the number of “removable or inadmissible aliens” in the U.S. Paxton claims that agreement has been violated.

Under the judge’s order, the Biden executive order cannot be implemented by the Department of Homeland Security and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

During Fiscal Year 2020, which ended on September 30, 2020, ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations officers deported 185,884 migrants who were ordered removed by a federal immigration judge. Of those, 92 percent had criminal convictions or pending criminal charges. The deportations also include 4,276 known or suspected gang members and 31 known or suspected terrorists, according to a year-end report published by ICE.

Bob Price serves as associate editor and senior news contributor for the Breitbart Texas-Border team. He is an original member of the Breitbart Texas team. Price is a regular panelist on Fox 26 Houston’s Sunday-morning talk show, What’s Your Point? Follow him on Twitter @BobPriceBBTX, Parler @BobPrice, and Facebook.